Month: June 2017

After yesterdays announcement of the Tories £1.5+ BILLION gift to DUP for Votes, today we learn disabled patients requiring a wheelchair are essentially reliant upon begging. It transpires disabled people unable to afford and needing, an alternative to the NHS 44lb wheelchair, is being forced to raise their own funds to purchase suitable equipment.

Please read and share this post, this letter requesting the college of OTs withdraw from their sponsorship deal with Capita. is an opportunity for you to add your support. As PIP claimants, Disabled people I feel this is an important request and the more of us sign the greater the likely impact. Hoping this campaign achieves its goal.

The Royal College of Occupational Therapists’ 2017 conference, taking place on Monday and Tuesday this week, has been sponsored by Capita, one of the private companies contracted to carry out Personal Independence Payments assessments.* I have written an open letter to the Royal College outlining why I think this is a terrible idea. I am collecting signatures for it until the end of the day onFriday June 23. After that I will email it to the Royal College and also publish the list of signatories here.If you are a disabled person / service user / survivor / healthcare professional and would be willing to put your name to the letter below, please contact me with the name & title you would like to go on the letter (e.g. I will sign as Rachel Rowan Olive, PIP claimant & mental health service user).

The day after the general election the House of Commons library released a flood of papers which had been held up because of purdah rules until after the result was known.

One of the most revealing papers was one on Banking Executives’ Renumeration in the UK. It drew on two sources – Britain’s submission ( required by EU rules ) to the European Banking Authority and British sources such as company reports and details from the banks themselves about long term incentives for senior executives.

The facts revealed in the annexes to this report confirm what a lot of people have suspected but have not always been able to prove. There is-a widening gulf between the top and the bottom that has been going on during the fiercest period of austerity which has seen real…

I can only support Gail in her comments ATOS… can rebrand as much as it likes, it doesn’t stop the DWP destroying disabled people’s lives when being assessed and losing their money, vehicles, jobs when they fail to be assessed correctly and leaving some so distraught their health actually deteriorates or they lose what income from working they had , and the worst case scenario is they are left housebound when they lose their mobility vehicles.

Following an independent review of the PIP assessment journey claimants experience in December 2014, Paul Gray recommended a number of changes to claimant communications to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Assessment Providers.
After consultation with DWP and reviewing our communications, we have introduced a new business name that better represents the work we do independently assessing PIP cases.
We believe Independent Assessment Services does this because: • It makes it clear that we are ‘independent’ providers, distinct from DWP • ‘Assessment’ explains the service we deliver assessing PIP cases more clearly than ‘healthcare’ does

It can rebrand as much as it likes, it doesn’t stop the DWP destroying disabled people’s lives when being assessed and losing their money, vehicles, jobs when they fail to be assessed correctly and leaving some so distraught their health actually deteriorates or they lose…

We are at last in the final week before the GE2017 and we finally learn that the Tories via Penby Mordaunt Disability Minister, believe that there is “no group in society that is so discriminated against [as disabled people], whether it be the barriers of the environment, of attitudes, or the failings of the state”. Finally an admittance that as a community disabled people experience the largest number of hurdles, just to survive.

But before celebrating lets put this into context, Mordaunt made this statement at at a disability hustings event, where she falsely claimed “a legislative commitment to dismantle the work capability assessment” (WCA) is in the manifeso; it isn’t.

Further Mordaunt in a written response to questions submitted by disability united this week “the decision about whether to institutionalise somebody against their will is rightly a matter for medical professionals, and decisions should be made on the grounds of individual safety and health“. She did go on to acknowledge “no one who should not be in an institutional setting is” but failed to recognise the desire of the individual in deciding where they should live.

This in the same week as John Pring (DNS) reports “The UK is one of the worst-performing countries in Europe when it comes to implementing the UN disability convention, being joint 11th out of 16 European Countries. Prings article outlines the Zero Project, which carried out the research and explains how the ratings are reached

So in the last 7 days it appears business as usual from the Tories with regard to disability, LIE, keep forcing sick and disabled people through the unjust and harrowing regime of WCAs, without regard or respect for the Rights and welfare of the individuals. I urge you to remember this next Thursday.

Thoughts on the crossroads of law, politics and society - for when 140 characters just won't do. This blog contains general information and commentary on legal matters. It is not intended to provide legal advice. This blog discusses the law in England, unless otherwise stated.